Post by Grubb. Whenever Argentinians ask us where we’re from in the US and we say, “New Mexico,” their initial reaction is puzzlement, the usual confusion about whether we’re one of the united states crossing their minds. We attempt to clarify by adding, “Albuquerque.” Blank looks. Then the clincher, the option that always works: “Breaking…
Category: Into Argentina and Uruguay we go
Ready to summit?
Post by Ella. All I can say right now is this is where we were today. More to come.
Yerba Mate in the Parque
Post by Ella. I’ve been fascinated and curious about the mate tradition in Argentina. Pronounced MA-tay. Yerba comes from hierbia which means herbs. Everywhere, you see people carrying their mate cup like we carry our Starbucks coffee. Except it’s not styrofoam or cardboard with a firmly fitting lid. The mate cup, also called a mate,…
Party gals
Post by Grubb. For three women in our winery group tour, this was their second winery excursion in as many days. They had taken part in a farewell party that concluded a Patagonia/Mendoza tour they had been on and were up till 2 drinking and singing karaoke the night before. The tour had been offered…
Bottoms up!
Post by Grubb. At each winery we stopped at on our tour of the Luján de Cuyo spread of vineyards, the conclusion of the brief inspection of gigantic stainless steel fermentation tanks along with taking in the vinegary odors of the racked oaken wine barrels led to the long table where vintages were sampled. Usually…
Four wineries x Five tastings each = too much wine
Post by Ella The wineries are 25 to 100 km out of town. We could pick a few wineries, rent a car and go. Or hire a driver. And there are a zillion small local companies that provide small group day tours. We chose a day tour with a company called “Wine and Trout” who…
Wine with the tennis jock
Post by Grubb. Tooling through the Luján de Cuyo vineyards noted for their Malbec, I was often, when we were seated for wine tasting, given the chair next to the traveling tennis player from Toronto. He and his young wife had flown into Mendoza from Santiago where he had played a match. We didn’t talk…
Squaring Mendoza
Post by Grubb. The downtown center of Mendoza, a twenty-five minute walk from where we’re staying, has a central plaza, Plaza Independencia, and four surrounding plazas equidistantly apart. Square San Martin honors the general who successfully liberated Argentina, Chile, and Peru from Spain. As far as national heroes go, he’s quite the dude. No one…
Watch your step!
Post by Grubb. If my first impression of Bariloche was that it looked like a Patagonian Lake Tahoe, coming into Mendoza reminded me of the San Fernando Valley, a wide spread of low buildings among the irrigated greenery of an arid plain at the foot of the Andes. The acequias lining the streets (where one…
Acequias, veredas, plazas
Post by Ella. Agustín, a shampoo boy and self made guide by day, rock musician by night, led us on a 2 hour walking tour of the center of Mendoza. We were his only customers on this tour. My brain exploded with Argentine history and political doings. More on that to come. Grubb will expound,…
The city awakes
Post by Ella. Our apartment is on the 14th floor of a relatively new building. The windows could use a little outside cleaning. Nonetheless, there is a view.
A walk around the neighborhood
Post by Ella. Mendoza = a province. Population 2 million. Mendoza = a city in the province which is also the capital of the province. Population 1.2 million. In area, Mendoza province is roughly half the size of New Mexico. The city, settled in 1561 by Spaniards from Chile, is a tourist draw for wine…
Patagonia behind, wine ahead
Post by Ella. Travel morning. Up before the crack of dawn. I’d booked a taxi for 4:45am. By 5:15 we were at the airport. The first ones. The guards were just waking up. Security screening not open until 5:30 they said. Which came and went. At 6am the screeners showed up. We were first in…
El Piso and the Promenade
Post by Grubb. (Bariloche) On Tuesday we made dinner reservations at El Piso, a narrow, unassuming restaurant along Ave. San Martin in Bariloche. Squeezed behind a tiny coffee shop in a back room that had six small tables, this little restaurant had a five star reputation among traveling gourmets. It didn’t open until eight, so…
Contrasting Conquests
Post by Grubb The westward expansion of Argentina wasn’t finalized until the end of the 19th century when English arbitration got Chile and Argentina to settle on the Andes determining the border between both countries. The Jesuit explorer and friend of the Mapuche natives who suggested the Andes dividing line was Perito Moreno. In honor…